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Crash site to get new sidewalk

Safety concerns raised after girl hit by vehicle

Students from Thunder Mountain Elementary School walk home F 1/2 Road after classes on Tuesday. Last October, a 5-year-old girl was struck by a car as she was walking to school in the area.

By {screen_name}
Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A sidewalk will soon be installed near where a car hit a 5-year-old girl last October.

Parents and community members raised concerns about safety along F 1/2 Road near Thunder Mountain Elementary School last fall after busing cutbacks extended the school’s walking boundaries from one mile to two. The school has few sidewalks between 30 and 31 roads on F 1/2 Road. The young girl was hit while walking to school the morning of Oct. 15 near the intersection of F 1/2 and 31 roads.

A sidewalk will be installed at that intersection and line a new subdivision, extending west on F 1/2 Road to Allegheny Road and south on 31 Road to F 1/4 Road. Construction of the 73-home Stagecoach Trail Subdivision began Tuesday. Homes, along with the sidewalk, will be built in phases as the market demands, according to Kim Kerk, development manager with Blue Star Industries, the project’s developer.

Kerk said she is not sure when sidewalk construction will start or end, but she said the F 1/2 Road section of the walkway likely will be the first part of the sidewalk to be installed. Construction of sidewalks on the interior roadways of the subdivision will start soon, she said.

“By the end, I’m sure a lot of kids will walk through the subdivision and miss that intersection,” she said, referring to F 1/2 and 31 roads.

Mesa County Planner Christie Barton said all subdivisions in Mesa County proposed within a quarter-mile walk of a school have to install sidewalks. Subdivisions close to a school can apply for transportation impact fee credits to help compensate for the cost of sidewalks, something for which Barton said Stagecoach Trails qualifies.

Safety measures for walkers near Thunder Mountain include crosswalks and crossing guards west of the school and in its parking lot, according to District 51 spokeswoman Christy McGee. McGee said the district appreciates it whenever neighbors add sidewalks.

“That’s not something we have the capacity to do as an entity so we appreciate that the community is playing a role,” she said.